Most recent stories

Present Tense

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What fascinates me now is now, this instant, this moment. This fugitive, this delinquent, this indiscreet, this forever elusive now. Now now. Now is now and now it is not now. Now is the adversary of time.…

glass

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She laughs and licks it.

Hunger

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for E. …

He Invented Carbon Dating for Seniors, and Couch Potato Chips

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I saw an older writer in a slouched-down Fedora, gray beard and long scraggly gray ponytail, who had empty chairs pulled up all around him, at the Loser Café, maybe for his imaginary friends, or maybe those who were already gone.

Manic Episode

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The manic,/ looking on, finds and polishes// the sharp green shard and bottle cap

Aged Beef on the Senior Meat Market

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Burger King has rekindled Flame, its $4 broiled-meat-scented spray.

Metro Blues.

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She had no eyes that I could see. Just a pair of lips; they looked soft

The Fact of the Matter

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Jeanne and I were married for eight years. I never knew her.

ouroboros

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if it were a child/ it would be in first grade this year

Rings and Things

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Rings and things...

Time Change in Florida

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Used to be I'd keep busy. Dreadful the time I spend sitting, standing, staring. I lose track, now. I believe it's because he died. It gets hold of me. I'll see him half on half off his bed, a plaid blanket angled over his back and legs, held…

Let's All Get Up And Dance To A Song That Was A Hit Before Beyonce Was Born

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Why don't we do it in a yellow submarine?

The Butterfly Effect

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Now it turns out, the story doesn’t begin with the butterfly lady, herself, but with her brother.

Margaret, Pleased

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Grace looks at her cell phone. It had been about a week since her Aunt Margaret fell, slipping gracefully down the stairs and pulling her shoulder out as she grabbed the banister, her hand caught in the holiday streamers spiraling down the railing. Every

summer fields

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we ran that afternoon/across Bayshore lanes/into green blooming fields, beyond all those

Faith, Hope, and Charity

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She wears three or four tattered sweaters on cool days. She pushes a basket borrowed from a grocery store. There is a plastic lawn bag in the basket with God knows what inside.

Other Rooms and Other Houses

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Your self-effacement hid/ so much of you// until you died and the full/ inked legacy shown in light

Section 8

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To a desert island I pick a book of crosswords for my one item. It is a desert island. What could be more practical? I awake in the middle of the night, an itch in my throat. I blow my nose. Weird gobbets of blood ring my Kleenex. It drizzles out now, wet here, gelatinous…

The Tale of Gary Von Gross

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Gather 'round children, For it's high time to tell, The story of a strange man With a horrible, awful smell. For this is a story More disgusting than most. This is the gruesome tale Of Gary Von Gross. With a house made…

The Blankey

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All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. All was confusion in the Lubrecht house. Baby Lubrecht had discovered that his favorite blankey, thought by him to have been lost, was in fact being used by his older sister, Lilly Lubrecht.…

Naughty Alice -- There's No Laughter When You're Extinct

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Does life have an expiration date Alice asked herself? One must be careful when trying to deal with a broken person; you might cut yourself on their shattered pieces. Life can be like an arrow penetrating your heart. Hard and painful to pull it out, yet i

Rent

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My real parents lived about 200 miles in the other direction from where we came. But long ago I determined they were too real.

Ages One Through Ten

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Age Eight: Custody battle. Reassure your worried mother that it’s alright, this will give you something interesting to tell your children one day. Until now, life has been very vanilla.

just not working

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some days you wake up/ to feel horror/ wrapped beneath your blanket./

The Audacity of My Ass

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But then there were car windows bashed out on both sides Glass on the ground like Kristallnacht

Five Million Yen: Chapter 61

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Dan Arris sat in Chez Colette enjoying a roulade of veal stuffed with root vegetables. He was not a happy man.

Reading Ancient History in the Evening

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In my dreams I am cremated in the burning Library of Alexandria.

Hold on

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I slept and it was pleasant. Then there was the kiss, and it was hot. Later you turned away, and all was November chill. Now there are touches, caresses and shouts, Marvelous nights flavored with favors bestowed, and blackened days,…

I Am Not A Careful Reader

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What's the weirdest thing you've ever used as a bookmark? I work in a library. I've seen that, and more.

Not So Thoughtful After All

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She put the Necco wafer on Sally's tongue."You can't be the priest, Emma" Sally said nearly choking on the hard, chalky disk."Then why you on yaw knees stupid?""You said to be prayin' and like in church, but you can't be doin' priest stuff. That's for…